At least twenty toms and hens were waiting at the breakfast bar yesterday, and when I called, "Turk, turk, turk," ten or fifteen more came running up from the woods. It's amazing to see them clustered in such large numbers.
Woodpeckers are back at work storing food for the winter. I know this because, without a ceiling now, the floor of the shed where I keep the birdseed is again littered with acorns. They stuff them in under the soffit and I kick them out the door. This is not what I consider a game.
What the ground squirrels are doing is also not funny. When I had the oil changed in the truck earlier this week, the nice man told me there were signs of damage to the wiring. Some years back, a squirrel had made a nest under the hood and had chewed through the battery cable. I remember the insurance agent passing the phone throughout the office, asking me to explain the situation to others, and hearing them all laughing as I told my tale of woe. "Tain't funny, McGee" (Fibber McGee & Molly, radio show from 1935-1959).
You know that feeling that you're being watched? There was, in fact, a peeping tom looking in my bedroom window yesterday. Going into the guest room, there was Ralph watching the bird on deck rail and making that kek-kek-kek sound cats make when excited. Now that was funny.
A little later, Bess and I went out to soak up some rays from the weak winter sun. We weren't the only ones out and about. Six deer came strolling up the driveway. Four of them peeled off and went down into the south pasture. The last two stopped, aware of our presence on the deck and, not sure what to do, turned and came bounding across the back yard with gazelle-like leaps that each covered ten or more feet. Awesome.
After a pretty rough start to the morning, it turned out to be a good day at Animal House.
1 comment:
I love the stories of your wild menagerie, Ms. Dr. Dolittle! And I have not had the problem with my car, but others in our complex have to leave the hoods of their cars open so that the rats don't chew thru the cables. And actually, my AC stopped working one day a bit over a year ago. The repair man changed a fuse and it started up and then quit almost immediately and he hot footed it outside where he verified that critters had chewed thru the insulation and wires going into the house from the AC unit. And I don't even live in the country!!!
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